


Tick Tock Moon

by redfairie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-11
Updated: 2011-12-11
Packaged: 2017-10-27 05:17:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/292006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redfairie/pseuds/redfairie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus boards the Hogwarts Express for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tick Tock Moon

**Author's Note:**

> This was written pre-DH but never finished. I later fixed it up to fit DH canon. The original pieces were part of something larger (Sirius/Remus, mostly) but this is the only part of it that ever resonated with me. It is (surprisingly) completely, utterly gen. Betaed by the lovely an_fhanai. All remaining mistakes are mine.

The large hand on the clock at King’s Cross seemed to be moving unusually fast, carelessly scattering minutes like grains of sand.

“It’s time.”

Remus Lupin looked from his mother to the clock. The long arm clicked to 10:55. It was the loudest tick he’d ever heard in his eleven years.

“Do you think you can muster a run?” she continued. “It works best for the first time.”

He nodded, taking a deep breath that made his chest ache. He held back a wince but his mother worried her lip anyway.

“I’m fine,” he told her, every ounce of energy going into his nearly convincing smile. 

She swept a hand across his forehead, carefully avoiding the healed but still tender bruise that just behind his hairline. 

“What was I thinking,” she murmured. “Letting you travel the day after the moon?” 

“Really, Mum,” he said. “I’m alright. Just tired. I’ll rest on the train.”

“Remus –”

“Please, Mum,” he said. 

Her eyes flicked to the large clock on the wall. “Well, get on with you then. I’ll be right behind you.” 

Closing his eyes, he ran.

A cool burst of September air told him he was through. He dared to open his eyes.

A scarlet steam engine emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest stood before him. Its engine hummed smoke billowing out its top valve as hoards of children slipped in and out of the cars. With them they carried with trunks, animal cages and the parting words of the family members they were leaving behind. 

“It’s just as I remember it.” Next to him, his mother had a slightly dazzled smile on her face. “Oh Remus. You are going to have a wonderful time,” she added wistfully.

He tried to manage a smile but the pit in his stomach was slowly growing bigger. His healing ribs ached along with his heart. He already missed home, the smell of his mother baking biscuits and his father reading out choice articles in the paper.

“What if…” 

He trailed off, afraid to even speak the words out loud. 

“We have to have faith, my darling,” she said softly. “Dumbledore will take good care of you.”

She wrapped her arms around him and for one last moment, he let himself hold on for dear life. Burying his head in her shoulder, he breathed in her familiar smell –   
flour, warm milk and Muggle perfume – and tried desperately to blink back the tears threatening his eyes.

“I’ll see you in a month,” she breathed into his hair. “It’s not long at all.”

He nodded into her neck before she finally pulled back, straightening his jacket for the last time. 

“Owl when you arrive,” she said. “Just so I know you’re safe.”

“I will, Mum,” he said, taking his very first step onto the Hogwarts Express.

“Don’t overexert yourself,” his mother called after him. “And remember to rest!”

“I will, Mum.” His voice barely carried over the rising noise of the Hogwarts Express as it whirred to life. “I promise!” 

He stood in the doorway as the train jerked forward, beginning its slow slide past the platform. 

“I love you!” he called.

She smiled a watery smile, lifting her hands to her heart and mouthing the words back.

And with that, Remus turned resolutely into the car. 

Students were still milling about, wandering in and out of different compartments, chattering and laughing loudly. Remus struggled through the crowds, his strength waning with each full compartment he passed. If he couldn’t make it on the train, how would he ever make it at Hogwarts?

Finally, he found a compartment with just one boy in it. Tall and lean with messy black hair, the boy lounged as though his seat it were a throne. His feet were up on the empty bench across from him and he had an enormous stack of chocolate frogs to his right (which he had already begun to eat if the chocolate smudges on the back of his _Quidditch Weekly_ were any indication.)

Remus took a deep breath and knocked on the frame. “Are these seats taken?”

The boy looked up, surveying Remus over his magazine. 

“As long as you don’t mind sitting with a first year,” he said. His voice exuded a confidence Remus could only wished he felt.

“I am a first year too,” he said nervously.

“You are?” he said, his face suddenly lighting up. “Brilliant! I was beginning to think I was the only one. Come in, sit down!”

He pulled his legs down from the empty seat and folded up his magazine in a flourish.

“I’m James Potter,” he said, sticking his hand out. 

Remus shook it firmly like his father had taught him. “Remus Lupin.”

“Nice to meet you, Remus.” 

“Likewise,” Remus said. James smiled broadly as Remus finally took a seat.

“Chocolate Frog?” James asked, holding the foil package out to him. 

Instantly, Remus felt better about his decision to sit here. After all, anyone who gave away chocolate had to be all right.

“Do you know anyone at Hogwarts?” James asked, his blue eyes bright with excitement as he passed over a Frog.

Remus shook his head.

“Me neither,” James said. “There is a boy who lives up the road who’s a third year but I’ve only a met him a couple of times at the market and besides, he’s in Hufflepuff. I’m not likely to see him anymore at Hogwarts then I did at home.”

“You don’t think you will be in Hufflepuff?” Remus asked.

James swallowed and shook his head. “Gryffindor,” he said assuredly. “My parents were Gryffindor and their parents before them and so on and so on. I’m pretty much a cert. Although, I do have that second cousin who was in Ravenclaw. Who did you get?” 

Remus, who was still trying to process the family history, realized that James’s meant the Chocolate Frog card. 

“Oh.” He turned the card over. “Ignatia Wildsmith.”

“Really?” James said wistfully. “I’ve been looking for her for ages.”

“Take it,” Remus said, holding the card out toward him. 

“Really?” 

“I don’t really collect them.”

James looked surprised but didn’t refuse. “Thanks,” he said. “So do you know where you will be?” 

Remus took a breath. He’d been dreading this question since he received his letter over the summer; not because he couldn’t answer it (that would be perfectly acceptable) but because he was almost certain he’d be in Slytherin. He was a Dark creature after all and everyone knew which house embraced Dark magic.

He tried to think of something on his feet but nothing came to him. Glancing around worriedly, he realized that no matter what his parents had said to him, going to Hogwarts was going to be just as difficult as he expected it to be.

“Well, my mum was a Hufflepuff and Dad was a Ravenclaw…” he said weakly.

James nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t know much about Hufflepuff but I’ve heard Ravenclaw is kind of swotty.”

Remus looked down.

“Not that it’s a bad thing,” James added quickly. “I just meant… Books and the lot. And well…”

His brow furrowed, lips twisting nervously and even though Remus had only known the boy for a few minutes, he had the distinct impression that discomfort was not a common occurrence for James Potter. 

“Don’t worry,” Remus said. “I know what you mean. Besides, I do like books. And whatever else comes in ‘the lot’.”

The uncertain look instantly disappeared from James face. “Well that’s good because I’m rubbish with them. I’d much rather be doing things. Hey! I reckon together we will make a pretty good team! Brains and brawn!” 

“You do know the brawn is usually rather dim,” Remus said, chancing a smile.

James put his hand over his heart, gasping in mock offense. “Here I am trying to make you feel better about reading too many books and you go and throw it in my face. Fine then, Remus Lupin. I take it back. I am the brains and the brawn. And you, my boy, you can just be a Hufflepuff.” 

James laughed, shoving Remus knee affectionately. It made Remus feel quite warm inside; like when his mother gave him a particularly ferocious hug or his father taught him how to catch a fish in a stream with his bare hands. As James tossed him another frog, it occurred to Remus that he may just have made his very first friend.

“So Remus, where are you from?”

“It’s a tiny little town down south. Mostly Muggles.”

“Me too,” James replied. “Full of Muggles that is. It’s called Godric’s Hallow. There are only a few Wizarding families.”

The name sounded familiar and Remus racked his brain to try and place it.

“Isn’t the Headmaster from there?” Remus finally asked.

“Dumbledore?” James replied. “Yes. He grew up down the road from my father’s house. His mother and my great-grandmother were very good friends. I’ve met him a few times. A little bit strange, if you ask me, but my mum says–”

“AND STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU LUNATIC!”

Then, their compartment door flew open with a bang. 

James and Remus startled, looking up. A tall boy in expensive looking black robes was framed in the doorway; a boy, who at the moment, was loudly letting out an impressive string of expletives, some of which Remus had never even heard before and all of which he would never have dared to use in the company of others. Remus looked from the boy to wide-eyed James and back again. 

“Eh, hullo?” Remus chanced.

Only then seemed to notice that the compartment was occupied. He drew himself taller and snapped, rather obnoxiously, “Are you Slytherins?”

Remus noted he made the word sound about as filthy as curses he had been yelling.

“No,” they both answered. 

“We’re first years,” Remus added cautiously, as though to not do so would be lying. 

“Well, thank Merlin,” Sirius cried, “because the lot of them are a bunch of bloody mad men and I refuse to be one.”

He flung himself down onto the empty seat next to Remus, his black robes whisking past Remus’s nose.

“You are my witnesses, right here and now,” he yelled, toward the open door. “I don’t care if I’m forsaking generations and generations of Blacks or disgracing my family’s honor or any of that other rot Bella is spewing. I. Simply. Refuse. I’D RATHER BE A GRYFFINDOR, YOU HEAR THAT BELLA? A BLOODY, RIGHTEOUS GRYFFINDOR!”

Remus stared at the dark-haired boy, mouth hanging open slightly. Who was this person?

“Well then,” James said after a moment. “Chocolate frog, anyone?” 

The boy narrowed his bright gray eyes, looking them both over as though they were measuring their worth in gold.

“Who are you?” he asked imperiously.

“I’m the one who’s compartment you have so graciously disrupted,” James replied. “Who are you?”

The boy lifted an eyebrow.

“Sirius Black, of course.”

“Nice to meet you, Sirius Black. I’m James Potter.” 

James did not, Remus noted, extend a hand as he had done with Remus.

“Of Godric’s Hallow?” Sirius asked.

“The one and the same,” James said. “And you? _The_ Blacks, I presume?”

“Are there any others?” Sirius replied. His tone somehow managed to convey both pride and disdain simultaneously. “And what’s your name?” he asked, turning to Remus.

“Remus Lupin,” he said, holding out his hand politely once more. Lupins didn’t forsake manners except in extreme circumstances. Sirius, however, didn’t take it. 

“You aren’t a pure-blood.” 

“No,” Remus said slowly. He sneaked a glance at James to find his eyes had narrowed in Sirius’s direction. Then he saw James’s wand peeking out from his robes, his fingers just inches away. 

But then Sirius laughed, head thrown back like Remus had just said the funniest thing in the world.

“Figures,” Sirius chuckled. “My mother told me that you all had horns but I see that was just another lie.”

He flashed Remus a grin that made him both uneasy and excited all at once. He wasn’t sure if he liked this Sirius Black but he couldn’t say he wasn’t interesting. And seeing as how James was now grinning madly at the two of them, he figured he might as well take the time to find out.

They spent the rest of the afternoon telling stories they had heard about Hogwarts ( _It’s like a hat with a brain_ , Sirius said knowingly), stuffing their faces with food from the trolley ( _You don’t like chocolate frogs? That’s it, we’re done_ , James said laughing), and playing with pack of Exploding Snap cards that James’s mother had given him as a going away present ( _You know, half-singed eyebrows really suit your face_ , Remus told Sirius with a grin). Remus even returned once from the bathroom to find that Sirius and James had already made two new enemies ( _They wanted to be in Slytherin_ , Sirius said, as though that settled the matter). 

It was the best four hours of Remus’s life thus far.

Later that night, as they crossed the lake in a rickety old boat they managed to keep all to themselves, Remus sat between his two new friends and got his first glimpse of Hogwarts. It was just as magnificent as his mother had described it, with huge turrets and small glittering lights in each of the tall, arched windows. 

“Hey,” James whispered, tugging on his sleeve. “Look at the moon. It’s huge tonight!”

Only half registering what James had said Remus did as he was told. For a moment, it was as though it was a different moon entirely, one that he’d never laid eyes on before. Its pale visage didn’t steal his breath nor did the its bluish light burn under his skin. Instead, it just hung there, brilliantly bright in the inky night sky. Exhaling softly, he brought his eyes back to the boat and the two awestruck boys sitting on either side of him.

“Actually,” Remus said quietly, “I was just thinking it looks rather small.”


End file.
